A rest area beside a blockade of the CN rail line is seen in Kahnawake, Que., Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. A council of twelve prominent Indigenous leaders tasked with advising CN Rail says it will resign effective on the last day of the year. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
A council of prominent Indigenous leaders tasked with advising Canadian National Railway Co. says all of its 12 members have submitted resignations, effective at the end of the year.
The group says the mass resignations are due to the company’s failure to acknowledge past wrongs and follow its recommendations for reconciliation.
The council’s co-chairs are Murray Sinclair, a former senator and head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Roberta Jamieson, the first female First Nations lawyer in Canada.
Sinclair and Jamieson say the 104-year-old railway company “missed the mark” on reconciliation and must accept its past, take action and commit to change by Indigenous-led business leaders.
The co-chairs say in a statement that CN is in a distinct category from other corporations when it comes to reconciliation because of the role railways played in the oppression of Indigenous peoples in early Canadian history.
CN is expected to put out a response today, but did not comment immediately on the resignations.
